A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to note taking systems. The invention is more specifically related to a note taking systems utilized noting telephone calls.
2. Discussion of Background
Personal computer systems and their applications have become common tools in modern society. To organize their lives, many personal computer users use personal information management applications such as an address book and a daily organizer on their personal computers. Although such applications have proven useful for personal information management, their utility is limited by the fact that the person must be sitting at their personal computer system to access the information.
To remedy this limitation, palmtop computers, electronic organizers and other handheld devices, commonly known as personal digital assistants (PDA""s), have been introduced. The PDA is a computer that is small enough to handheld or placed in a pocket, and allows a user to run various applications including personal information management applications such as address books, daily organizers, etc. These applications make people""s lives easier.
The most popular brand of PDA is the Palm(trademark). However, the Palm(trademark) is much more than a simple PDA. A basic configuration of the Palm(trademark) 100 is shown in FIG. 1. This small, slim, device, about the size of your wallet, can hold 6000 addresses, 5 years of appointments, 1500 to-do items, 1500 memos, 200 e-mail messages, and can run many different software applications.
The front of the Palm(trademark) 100 is a large LCD screen 110 which is touch-sensitive and allows a user to enter and manipulate data. A stylus (not shown) is provided with the Palm(trademark) to help in making touch screen inputs. By using the stylus (or another handheld pointer) to interact with a touch-sensitive screen, a palmtop user can easily navigate through a host of built-in programs, software, and other applications.
Today, the Palm(trademark), PDA and other handheld computing devices offer Internet connectivity capabilities, as well as a vast array of hardware and software choices. Palmtops have evolved from simple organizers into a new kind of handheld device that people use to instantly manage all kinds of information, from email, to medical data, to stock reports.
However, despite the great capabilities and conveniences of the modern PDA, many innovations are needed for expanding the capabilities and for increasing the convenience of using PDAs is needed.
The present inventors have realized that a Palm(trademark) type computer is ideal platform for taking notes during a phone call. A call note button is provided that a user can tap while in a phone call, which activates an application for taking a note. The note is pre-populated with items such as the telephone number the user called (or the number that called the user), a name associated with the number called, a time stamp, and/or other information available to the note taking portion (or subprogram) of the address book application. A screen is provided having a note entry area where the user can enter information about the phone call to complete the note.
Upon exiting the note, the note taking application provides the capability for updates to the user""s address book based on information collected about the call. Information for updating the address book may be collected from the note, caller id information, additional information entered by the user (the number called, for example), or other sources.
The present invention is embodied as an electronic device, comprising, a phone application configured to allow a user to place and receive telephone calls, a note button, and a note device that operates upon activation of the note button, wherein the note device is configured to take a note during a telephone call.
The present invention includes a method of operating a PDA, comprising the steps of, receiving a note signal from a user during a telephone call, opening a note entry screen having at least one field for placement of data about the phone call, and a user modifiable note field, and pre-populating at least one of the data fields with information regarding the telephone call.
The present invention may also be embodied on a computer readable media having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when loaded into and executed by a computer or processing device, perform the steps of, receiving a note signal, opening a note entry screen having, at least one field for placement of data about a telephone call placed or received by a user, and a user modifiable note field, pre-populating at least one of the data fields with information regarding the telephone call.
Both the device and method may be conveniently implemented using general purpose programming and executed on a computer, such as a modern PDA, Palm(trademark), or networked computers, and the results may be displayed on an output device connected to any of the general purpose, PDA, Palm(trademark), networked computers, or transmitted to a remote device for output or display.